While few doubt the ?success? of the ongoing ?operation? against the Maoists at Lalgarh in West Bengal, the movement itself poses an interesting flashpoint where several socio-political trends have converged. The first of these is the widely noted rise of the Maoists (or Naxalites) throughout India in recent years to being the number one internal security threat. It claimed more lives than the J&K or North East insurgencies or communal violence in the 2004-2008 period and was the only one with a rising trend. It is presumed to be active in at least 256 out of 602 districts today, up from 131 in 2001, with the ?red corridor? stretching continuously from Nepal to the Indian Ocean. The sequential mergers of the different Naxalite outfits resulting in the emergence of the CPI (Maoist) in 2004 enabled control of over 15,000 armed members. Chasing the cops away at Lalgarh may be a brazen show of strength, but it is certainly not their first, not even the most spectacular.
The less frequently noted feature is the convergence of the tribals and the Maoists in India?a defining element of the Lalgrah mess. Partly because of the geography that permits guerilla warfare, Maoists have been in natural contact with the tribal population. But tribals have also been clearly the minority group that has paid the highest price of India?s development and has simultaneously benefited the least from it. Statistically, a tribal is five times more likely than a non-tribal to lose his home for developmental or conservation needs. Politically, Karia Munda notwithstanding, a tribal has lost out to even the dalits, not to speak of other minorities, in having a voice in our political system. Fragmented, unorganised, and lacking in charismatic leadership, they have remained on the fringes as much in the political system as in our developmental landscape.
An irony of Lalgarh has been that it is happening in a state ruled continuously by the Left for over three decades. It undercuts the claim of inclusive growth that has been the Left?s primary boast. The arid Western districts of South Bengal have been the most neglected in all respects, with villages literally at starvation levels. From a different angle though, it is hardly surprising that all this is happening in West Bengal. While it may have failed to bring development to those who needed it most desperately, the Left has succeeded in infiltrating and systematically destroying every institution of democratic governance in the state. When the police force to the autorickshaw union to the professors? association all take orders from the CPI(M) headquarters, people have no option but to barricade roads and chase suspected Left supporters away from their homes to make a point, however misguided these actions maybe. By gradually choking normal ground-level democracy in Bengal, the Left has set the stage for this eruption of violence. The hills were the first to use this successfully, the tribals and Maoists of Western Bengal tried it next.
The ensuing political finger-pointing has brought out interesting issues as well. Has Trinamool been in connivance with the Maoists in Nandigram? You bet. Are the Maoists mostly disillusioned former CPI(M) people? Quite possibly. Are CPI(M) goons leading the ?operation? along with the cops? Very likely.
The fact remains, however, that this bickering does not really matter much. With the CRPF and police personnel launching their operation largely away from the public eye, it is free for all in Lalgarh. We will probably never know how many would be killed, or their identities and affiliations, nor perhaps the scale of human rights violation that is happening at Lalgarh, given the usual brutalities that mark such police actions.
That would hardly be new to the people of Lalgarh though. It is apt to recall that the present trouble at Lalgarh had its beginnings in police atrocities following the landmine blast on the way of Buddhadeb?s motorcade last November as he was returning from the inauguration of the Jindal Steel Plant SEZ in Salboni. After the police rained brutalities in 35 villages to make up for its own lapses, the tribals rose in arms with the aid of the Maoists. Now, while the hardcore Maoists can melt into Jharkhand with ease, for the tribals and others the current operation may well be worse than the nightmare they had protested in their own way.
?The author teaches finance at the Indian School of Business